Water could be called the most precious resource on earth. Islands and their inhabitants have a unique relationship with it. Though surrounded by it, water scarcity used to be and still is one of the greatest threats islanders face. Therefore, the necessity for inventions addressing this problem existed from prehistory until today. The conference provided insight into various methods of confronting water scarcity in island contexts, such as the Balearic Islands, and discussed the roles different actors played, for example in the period of Al-Andalus or Christian monasteries before and after the Muslim interval.

As part of the introduction, CHRISTIAN DEPRAETERE (Montpellier) spoke about his geohistorical approach to the specific constraints faced by Neolithic populations on islands over a period of 5.000 years due to interannual variability of precipitations. Using the Mediterranean as his lab space, he demonstrated variables such as population size, position, local climate, the periods considered and the various needs of populations. With examples from Gavdos, Cyprus, Formentera, Crete, and Malta, he contrasted the variability of rainfall, the seasonality of surface runoff and underground storage.

FRERICH SCHÖN (Tübingen) and STEFANO CESPA (Rome) presented an overview on water management techniques in the Punic and Roman Mediterranean drawing on literary and archaeological sources. Based on recent archaeological research on the Italian islands of Pantelleria and Sardinia, they compared the use and efficiency of ancient cistern types.

Opening the panels on the Balearic Islands, GABRIEL ALOMAR-GARAU (Barcelona) explained the role of water-extracting windmills in the formation of the agricultural landscape of Mallorca. From a catalogue of more than 2,400 traditional windmills, their preferential location in three different geographical “hotspot”-regions of the island (southern and northern plains of the island) is explained by a double factor of confluence of summer sea breezes and the presence of water in the subsoil, constituting aquifers. Most of these windmills are no longer active, due to the substitution of wind energy by combustion engines, as well as a slow process of abandonment of agriculture in favor of tertiary activity.

AINA ESCOBAR (Balearic Islands) presented her study of the rogation ceremonies on Mallorca in the 16th and 17th centuries. The pro pluvial rogatives are documented as an interplay between peasants indicating water shortages to the religious institutions and local authorities paying for the ceremonies. The main rogation ceremonies were the novenas, the procession of the main relics of the diocese and the quaranta hores. Rain-seeking ceremonies are a very good drought indicator for the pre-industrial era and are being collected in the International Pro Pluvia Rogation Database.

The typical Mallorcan water drainage system: the albellons – underground ditches built with stones and covered with earth – were portrayed by ANTONI MAS FORNERS (Balearic Islands). Some methods dating back to the Middle Ages are still in use today to enable the cultivation of Mallorca’s lowland plains with deep clay soils also during winter and spring, when the rainfall is usually highest.

From 2005 to 2010, JESÚS CARDONA (Menorca) and FERRAN VIZOSO (Menorca), both architects, have meticulously documented Menorcan rainwater water storage systems of the so-called aljibes, cisterns, ponds and artificial ponds from across time periods. In addition to their research, the architects restored the aljub at Mercadal, a cistern from 1733 that originally was built under British Governor Kane with a catchment of 20 m x 40 m and a capacity of more than 250,000 m2.

Returning to the early medieval period, MATEU RIERA RULLAN (Barcelona) used the small island of Cabrera south of Mallorca as an example for the water management of the earliest eremitic and monastic settlements in the Mediterranean. Clear historical evidence gives proof of the existence of a community of monks from AD 603 onwards. This corresponds with archeological remains of buildings and graves. Indeed, the density of eremitic and monastic remains makes it likely for him that Cabrera and the neighboring much smaller Illa des Conills were perceived as holy islands (islas santas).

MIGUEL ÁNGEL GÓMEZ GÓMEZ (La Laguna, Tenerife) explained how the Canary Islands obtained most of the necessary water from the trade winds. Colonization (16th century) brought about environmental, social, and economic changes, favoring agriculture over livestock farming. Different water collection systems were used, like wells and mines (qanats). The water was used to irrigate sugar cane fields and vineyards, which produced the main export commodities to Europe.

Section 3 focused on the period of Al-Andalus and the Muslim colonization of the Balearic Islands from the early 10th century to the Christian conquest of 1287. HELENA KIRCHNER (Barcelona) used several case studies of the islands of Mallorca and Ibiza to highlight the diversity of techniques employed by the newcomers, how they adapted to the local conditions and created a totally new agricultural landscape. Her method is based on intensive archaeological surveys, which are contrasted with written documentation from the feudal conquests in the 13th century. Thus, it is possible to identify the peasant groups by name and divide them between fields, channels, and watermills installed before and after the Reconquista.

Applying the same methodology and observing densities of Arab and Tamazight place names, FÉLIX RETAMERO (Barcelona) determined the ravines as the main axis of the Muslim peasant communities. The new settlers from the 13th century onwards made transformations that made the previous installations quickly become obsolete.

GLENDA GRAZIANI (Barcelona) described the transformation of an ancient dry farming area into an irrigated one in the 10th-13th centuries on Ibiza. Recently she has led large scale excavations in Pla de Vila – historically the only urban center on the island – which brought new evidence for groundwater upwelling by waterwheels.

A guided tour by ANDREU JOSEP VILLALONGA VIDAL and MARGARITA NOVO ÁLVAREZ (Balearic Islands) through the Cathedral of Mallorca led to the second more general focus of the workshop: religious communities on islands and their water management. As with other liturgical buildings in Mallorca, the Cathedral is a prime example on the symbolic use of water. That is, on the one hand, due to its location by the sea and on the other hand connected to the historical use of water cisterns, like the underlying and initially also publicly accessible “acequia de la vila”.

ALBERT CASSANYES ROIG (Palma) examined the Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria de la Real, which is also famous because the Catalan philosopher Ramon Llull lived there at the turn of the 14th century. The Cistercians – otherwise more oriented towards solitude – received land donations much closer to town. With the Alpic farmhouse (Esporles) and La Real connected by older water management systems that date to the Andalusian period, they were essentially controlling Palma’s access to freshwater.

Looking from inside the city walls, JULIA ROMAN QUETGLAS and MAGDALENA RIERA FRAU (Palma) analyzed the water supply of the convents and monasteries of Palma. In a second step, they compared the convents in the city with those of the rest of the island. Here again it was necessary to emphasize the differences between the foundations associated with the Catalan feudal conquest of the 13th century and those in the context of the Tridentine reform of the 16th century.

Identifying small Byzantine monastic sites no longer in use represents a considerable methodological challenge. DAVID HILL (Oslo) and MARIA Z. SIGALA (Athens) have addressed that with their research in the highly fragmented island landscape of the Aegean. They were more successful than they had expected and presented a newly discovered ancient oracle within a standing church. Regarding water in cult creations, they emphazised the role of holy springs (Hagiasma) that were venerated in Constantinople and throughout the Byzantine period and played an important role in the formation of monastic space.

Islands in rivers face other challenges, as ANDREA KISS and JÓZSEF LASZLOVSZKY (Vienna) were able to demonstrate for the Middle Danube region. They presented insight into flood resilience and mitigation in medieval island monasteries such as the Dominican convent at the uppermost end of Margret Island in Budapest, Hungary. Their research is based on an extensive environmental and flood database consisting of both documentary and archaeological evidence.

Mainly looking at Northern and Western Europe, LOUIS SICKING (Amsterdam/Leiden) investigated the importance of insularity for monasticism and how it influenced Christianization. While hermits and monks sought isolation on islands to dedicate their lives to God, this isolation was compromised by both mission activities and pilgrims.

In short, this conference brought together historical, archaeological, and architectural research as well as geographical, technological, and natural science approaches to a topic that is part of landscape, island, and water management studies at the same time. This collaboration made a longue durée approach possible and allowed for regional detail under a much larger remit.

Part of the contributions will be included in an edited volume on “Islands, Monasteries and Water” that is to be published together with other chapters on islands monasteries in the open access series of the DFG-funded SFB 1070 ResourceCultures from the University of Tübingen.

Conference overview:

Welcome

Sophie Hüglin (Tübingen) / Laura Dierksmeier (Tübingen) / Frerich Schön (Tübingen) / Maria Gràcia Salvà (Mallorca):

Introductions

Maria Francesca Lopez Cortés (Cabrera): Water: A Topic with Relevance for Today

Jordi Morató (Barcelona): The Importance of Water Research

Christian Depraetere (Montpellier): Water Research on Islands

Section 1: Balearic Islands I

Gabriel Alomar Garau (Barcelona): Traditional Windmills as Shapers of Water Landscapes in Mallorca. Constructive, Historical and Geographical Aspects

Maria Barceló Crespí (Palma): La provisión, distribución y control del agua en la Ciudad de Mallorca tardomedieval

Aina Escobar (Palma): Rogation Ceremonies for Water on Mallorca in the 16-17th c.

Section 2 : Balearic Islands II

Antoni Mas Forners (Palma): "Albellonar" y construir "síquies": un sistema de drenaje característico de las tierras de secano de Mallorca

Jesús Cardona (Maó): Rainharvesting Architecture on Menorca

Andreu Josep Villalonga Vidal (Palma) / Margarita Novo Malvárez (Palma): El agua y la Catedral de Mallorca: espacios, representaciones y simbolismo litúrgico

Mateu Riera Rullan (Barcelona): La gestión del agua en los asentamientos monásticos de Cabrera (Siglos V – VIII)

Tour of Palma

Maria Barceló Crespí (Palma): Infraestructura hidráulica de Palma

Section 3: Balearic Islands III

Helena Kirchner (Barcelona): Small-scale Irrigation Systems at the Oriental Islands of al-Andalus. Mallorca and Ibiza (X-XIII c.)

Félix Retamero (Barcelona): Irrigated Spaces and Technical Obsolescence between the Middle Ages and the Modern Era in Menorca

Glenda Graziani (Barcelona) La transformación de un espacio agrícola de secano de época antigua por uno de regadío en época andalusí (Ibiza, s. X-XIII)

Section 4 : Water on Islands, Comparative Perspectives

Miguel Gómez Gómez (La Laguna, Tenerife): Gestión histórica del agua en Canarias

Frerich Schön (Tübingen) / Stefano Cespa (Rom): Water Management on Mediterranean Islands in Antiquity

Section 5: Island Monasteries and Water I

Julia Roman Quetglas (Palma) / Magdalena Riera Frau (Palma): Water and Monasteries on the Island of Mallorca in Medieval and Modern Times

Albert Cassanyes Roig (Palma): Water and the Cistercian Monastery of la Real (13th-15th centuries)

David Hill (Oslo) / Maria Z. Sigala (Athens): Byzantine Monastic Sites in the Aegean

Section 6: Island Monasteries and Water II

Andrea Kiss (Vienna) / Joszef Laszlovszky (Vienna): Flood Resilience, Mitigation and Medieval Island Monasteries along the Middle Danube

Louis Sicking (Leiden / Amsterdam): Island Hermitages and Monasteries in Early Medieval Europe